During a town hall meeting here at Southwest High School, the president said he believes “strongly” that health care reform should include “a public insurance option.”

“The reason is not because we want a government takeover of health care,” Obama said in his opening remarks. “I've already said, if you've got a private plan that works for you, that's great. But we want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it'll keep them honest, and it'll help keep their prices down.”

Providing Americans with affordable health insurance, the president said, is “an economic imperative, but it's also a moral imperative.”

“This next eight weeks is going to be critical,” Obama told a crowd of about 1,600. “And you need to be really paying attention and putting pressure on your members of Congress to say, ‘ There's no excuses – if we don't get it done this year, we're probably not going to get it done.’ ”

Obama had pointed words for his critics, too, seeking to cast them – as he did during the economic stimulus debate – as finger-pointers without solutions.

“To those who criticize our efforts, I ask them, ‘What's the alternative?’” Obama said. “ ‘What else do we say to all those families who spend more on health care than on housing or on food? What do we tell those businesses that are choosing between closing their doors and letting their workers go?’ ”

“Here's what I'm going to tell them,” Obama concluded, “that, after decades of inaction, we have finally decided to fix what's broken about health care in America.”

So far, the public option has emerged as Obama’s biggest obstacle to reform. It has Democrats divided. The American Medical Association has come out against it. And Republicans have made it the crux of their pushback against legislation working through a Democratic-controlled Congress.

It also came up repeatedly in Green Bay, initiated both from questions from members of the audience and from Obama himself.

The president took advantage of his first question, from a woman who challenged the need for a “public option,” to bat down criticism that his reforms are a path to socialism.

“There are some folks who say ‘socialized medicine.’ You hear that all the time: ‘socialized medicine,’” Obama said. “Well, socialized medicine would mean that the government would basically run all of health care. … Nobody's talking about doing that, all right? So, when you hear people saying ‘socialized medicine,’ understand: I don't know anybody in Washington who is proposing that – certainly not me.

“Don't let people scare you,” he added. “If you like what you've got, we're not going to make you change.”

The president spoke for about 20 minutes at the town hall before taking nearly twice as long to answer just a handful of questions from the audience. He used the moment try to take control of a debate that has put his administration on the defensive as it pushes for Congress to pass a major health care overhaul. And at one point, he stressed that he is “not ideologically driven one way or the other about it.”

He keeps implying that he will bring down health care costs? Knowing how the Federal government works we will "bring down costs" by cutting services and increasing taxes elsewhere to transfer back to health care. The largest cost savings will come from withholding services to those with "low survival probability". Dick Lamm used the term moral imperative when stating "the elderly have a moral imperative to die".

The private health insurance crime family syndicate exists for one reason and one reason only and that is to screw you. While they're screwing you they hope you'll die in the process so that they don't have to pay out any money on your behalf. That would take caviar out of the mouths of their shareholders. Private health insurance companies do not care about your health. They care about profit. Their only function is to take in more money in premiums than they pay out in claims. They answer to shareholders, not patients and doctors. Peoples lives are being sacrificed for the bottom line. Obama is right. This is immoral and we should be really mad.

I'm glad that President Obama is sticking to his guns on the public health insurance option. The American Medical Association, the insurance industry, and their stooges in Congress (i.e., Republicans and Conserva-Dems) are working overtime to force the public option off the table so as to preserve high doctors' salaries and for-profit control of health care at the expense of average Americans. Triggers and co-ops are not acceptable alternatives. Americans deserve a public option.

“We have the most expensive health care system in the world,” Obama said. “We spend almost 50 percent more per person on health care than the next most-costly nation. But here’s the thing, Green Bay: We’re not any healthier for it. We don’t necessarily have better outcomes. Even within our own country, a lot of the places where we spend less on health care actually have higher quality than places where we spend more.”

An October 2005 report from the Manhattan Institute shows the efforts of trial lawyers to target health care providers for profit are raising U.S. health care costs.

Average life expectancy in the U.S. has increased from 65 to 75 in the last 50 years. I think we're doing fine, considering all the ground beef we eat. Thank gawd for Lipitor...

We should be looking at ways of making hospitals/health care leaner/meaner and more competitive as per India model...

Many studies show that America’s spending on health care is soaring, yet its medical outcomes remain mediocre. Mark McClellen of the Brookings Institution, an American think-tank, says that a big problem is the overuse of technology. Whether or not a scan is needed, the system usually pays if a doctor orders it—and the scan might help defend the doctor against a malpractice claim. (it's all about protecting themselves from lawyers)

Single payer system will bankrupt this country before you can say Former President Obama. My goodness I have heard of the phrase strike while the iron is hot, but this guy is going to have us so far in the hole that we may never recover.

We ought to be careful here about cutting all sorts of things like employer sponsored health benefits at the same time we are raising taxes through the roof. At some point something is going to break and it may never come back.

I really don't care how much it cost or what needs to be done. But get it done. There is no way in hell anyone walking the streets of the United States should be uncovered. Anyone should be able to see a Dr at any time and be covered.

We probably should have gone for the single payer system right from the start, knowing full well that the same interests that opposed it would also have opposed any other attempts at reform, no matter how much we tried to meet them halfway. Well, that's a good lesson for the future.

Does anybody remember Obama's promise not to raise taxes on 95 % of America? It's just amazing how anyone can support this liar? People are so stupid all they do is listen to what he is saying today. Over the next month or so all we are going to hear are more lies. Like passing a governement takeover of healothcare will help the economy. LIE! That this governemtn takeover will not hurt private insurance LIE! How can people still support this SOCIALIST? The biggest laugh is he still trying to convince the Americna people that he is a fiscal conservative. I'd laugh if there were'nt so many idiots who still support this phony. And our media just laps it all up as the country is being transformed into Venzuela!!! He is such a good speaker!! He's wonderful!!!

Does anybody remember Obama's promise not to raise taxes on 95 % of America? It's just amazing how anyone can support this liar? People are so stupid all they do is listen to what he is saying today. Over the next month or so all we are going to hear are more lies. Like passing a governement takeover of healothcare will help the economy. LIE! That this governemtn takeover will not hurt private insurance LIE! How can people still support this SOCIALIST? The biggest laugh is he still trying to convince the Americna people that he is a fiscal conservative. I'd laugh if there were'nt so many idiots who still support this phony. And our media just laps it all up as the country is being transformed into Venzuela!!! He is such a good speaker!! He's wonderful!!!

I really don't care how much it cost or what needs to be done. But get it done. There is no way in hell anyone walking the streets of the United States should be uncovered. Anyone should be able to see a Dr at any time and be covered.

So you believe in strong arming individuals to pay for YOUR healthcare? In other words steal from others so that YOU can walk off the street any time and be covered?

So now health care is a right. I'm thinking food is probably even more of a right. And what's the good of having health care if you don't have a roof over your head. And having a job that pays enough to enjoy life is a definite plus in the mental health care area...so that's given. And everybody needs at least 2 cars, one plasma or LED or LCD TV (50" or larger), a surround sound system, A/C, a swimming pool in the backyard, an Iphone, a new computer, total Dish package for the TV (including the NFL, MLB and NBA packages...and the movie stuff too), a boat, the summer home to go with the boat, a jet ski for the kids, a snowmobile for anyone who lives where it snows and a yearly trip to the destination of your choice (Disney World, etc.). I've obviously omitted a few of life's necessities, but I'm sure Obama will make sure everyone gets what they have coming.

Is the goverment going to print the money to pay for these new rights or should I just send my check to Timmy G?

Although I could support a "public option" as a final option, nothing else has been tried, he's mentioned Tort reform, electronic files and a number of other ideas to reduce cost, why must we always fight the symptoms and not the cause.

If the do succeed with a "public option" that provides good health care at an affordable price... what happens when Insurance companies simply can not compete, when the public option is the best option... I'll tell you, it will become the only option! Unlike the Government, the insurance companies cannot operate while losing money.

They don't want to let us have the public option, or even the cooperatives Conrad was talking about. They want everything their own way, while our side gets zero. It's not gonna happen. Either our side gets something of what we want, or we just kick over the traces. This is what we get for even trying to meet the Republicans half way. It's like negotiating with the Soviets, you give an inch and they take a mile. Well, it was a mistake to even try to deal with any of these people in a reasonable way, so now we should push it through.

I said a long time ago that the AMA, the insurance companies and the Republicans would oppose any kind of health care reform no matter what it was, and events proved me right. All I had to do was go by past history, and I knew exactly who would oppose any and all attempts at reform, and exactly what they would say. I knew it before any of this even started.

Reply Qu

No we just don't want a forced Cuban system crammed down our throat by Socialists like you.

More big government, more stuff like the GM (auto workers union) bailout. Reject it. Medical care will suffer for the vast majority of responsible citizens. Memo to people: if you do not plan to be responsible and be in a position to get medical insurance, hold off on having kids until you do. And why do you expect all the rest of us to clean up your financial mess? We have our own problems and most of us have figured out ways to take care of our business. It is called choices and priorities. And do not lay on me the odd horror story like Obama did. I resent it. It is dishonest and hypocritical. Obama was the single most liberal Senator. It is in his bones to grow government, to be a socialist. But the American people are not Europeans. We value our freedom. Reject another huge welfare program, aka national health insurance.